Pasta with Braised Kale

In honor of World Vegetarian Day (yes, that's a real thing, apparently), I made a delicious, meatless pasta dinner tonight. It features our good old friend kale, braised for about twenty minutes with onion and garlic, doused with lemon juice at the last moment, and tossed with pasta. It's simple, wholesome, and yum.

This is a great introduction to kale, for those of you who haven't tried it yet, or just haven't introduced it to your diners yet. It's much more approachable when tender and mixed with everyone's favorite starchy food.

Pasta with Braised Kale
adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine
serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
salt
1 bunch kale, large stems removed, torn into chunks and rinsed
1/3 pound whole wheat linguine or spaghetti
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon finely grated parmesan

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft and translucent, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes. Add garlic and sprinkle with salt; cook until onion is golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

2. Add kale (still wet from rinsing) and remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil and toss until just wilted, about 2 to 3 minutes. Cover the pot and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring occasionally, and adding a little bit of water now and then if it becomes dry, until kale is very tender, about 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of water to a boil and salt it. Cook pasta until al dente, according to package directions. Reserve about 1/4 cup pasta cooking water before draining the pasta. Add drained pasta to the kale pot.

4. Add lemon juice and a tablespoon of the pasta cooking water and toss everything together. If it's too dry, add more pasta water (you probably won't need to). Serve topped with a little bit of parmesan.

Enjoy!